Skip to agency navigation
Skip to main content

Official Website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means its official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 

    ​​Screening, Identification, and
    ​Pla​​cement of ELs

    The Civil Rights Act of​​ 1964, Title VI, Language Minority Compliance Procedures, requires school districts/charter schools/comprehensive CTC's to identify EL students. LEAs have a responsibility under federal law to serve ELs who need ESL/bilingual instruction as well as academic supports in order to be successful in school.

    LEAs in Pennsylvania ar​​e required to complete the steps outlined in the English Learner Identification Procedure to identify English learners at the time of enrollment. These steps must be completed within 30 calendar days of the start of school for students who enroll prior to the start of the school year or 14 calendar days for students who enroll during the school year.

    Home Language Survey (Word)

    The Home language survey may be downloaded in multiple languages from the General Education section of the Translation Library in the ELD Portal.

    Students who arrive from other countries may present transcripts from their previous school(s). LEAs may need to have these transcripts translated and/or consult with the family in order to review them and award appropriate credits. LEAs should follow the same procedure for awarding credits from countries outside of the U.S. as they do for other states in the U.S. or other school districts within Pennsylvania. The Evaluating Foreign Transcripts document is intended as a reference tool to assist school staff members with evaluating foreign transcripts for students newly enrolling from other countries.​

    Evaluating Foreign Transcripts (PDF)​